Pinnacle of faith

By Kath Gannaway
STUDENTS from Healesville, Badger Creek, Toolangi and Chum Creek primary schools went to great heights last week to face their fears on the Pinnacle of Terror.
The challenge for the grade five and six students was to harness up, climb a seven metre tower, jump from a platform and grab a trapeze bar before being lowered back to earth.
It’s seriously scary stuff!
Badger Creek student Annabell was chosen to take an added leap of faith when she was blindfolded for a second jump.
“It was a bigger challenge the second time,” she said after coming back down to lots of “well dones” from classmates below.
“Finding the platform without being able to see anything was very scary.”
Andrew and Danica Firth who take the Pinnacle of Terror to primary and high schools say it is a highlight of the year for many of the students.
“It’s about building self worth in kids and reinforcing that nothing is impossible, that if they believe in themselves they can achieve impossible things,” Mr Firth said.
“The challenge is different for everyone – for some it’s climbing half way up and for others it’s getting to the top,” he said.
Mr Firth said one of the messages kids get from the experience is that everyone has their own challenges and that for some those challenges are harder to deal with.
“We encourage kids rather than teasing others who are struggling to give them extra support and encouragement because those kids are challenging themselves twice as much. We get a lot of feedback from schools saying how well the kids have responded to the experience,” Mr Firth said.